A German Wedding American Style

Hey everybody! Sorry for being so behind on the updates, I´ve been a little sick. No crazy stomach bugs (thank goodness!). I might just be imagining things, but sometimes I think in the past few days I´ve caught someone´s pitying stare as they nod their heads in a way that lets me know that they see another poor consumption victim is in their midst. They would know. Europeans are full of stories of people dying of consumption. I think it´s in the contract they have to sign if they want to tell stories. But without futher ado, let me present you with my first official update, and take this moment to swear on the soul of my father Inigo Montoya that I will soon catch you all up with regular updates (internet access willing) whether you want them or not as I make my way through strange and distant lands (cue sitar and chimes)

So much has happened in the last week (have I been gone that long?) and I am not exactly sure where to start except maybe to say that Ben is becoming an espresso drinking fool. Unlike us weak Americans, Europeans do not adulterate their coffee with water. They drink straight shots. Ben, being the caffeine addict that he is, has easily adjusted to drinking straight shots, even graduating from one shot to two. With my attempts to adjust to the time schedule here, I have tried the straight shots, but there is something about the thick particles sticking to the back of my throat as it slides down that has caused me to begin ordering my um (um=one in Portuguese, it´s not a typo folks) cafe com leite (with milk).

Just to refresh your memories, on Wednesday I flew out from Portland at 730am for Josh (my cousin's wedding) and arrived in Frankfurt the next day at 10am. And because I do not let things like 4 hours of sleep within a 48 hour period get in my way, I threw my luggage in my hotel room and raced off to see some Guttenberg bibles. Unfortunately, sleep was determined to catch up with me so I often found myself drifting off to sleep while standing and trying to admire these really old bibles. And then the next day I pretty much slept the day away, except for the time I got up to eat a lovely dinner of turkische pizza and made a german gummy bear stop at a wonderful discount store named Aldi in order to buy and then eat gummy bears.

The sleeping all day think would not have been so bad if not for the fact that I also slept through the civil service of Josh and Rebecca. You see, in Germany everyone who marries must go through a civil service or it does not technically count whether or not they want a church wedding. Since this is what everyone who wants to marry has to do, many people do not even have a church wedding (gasp!). So while I inadvertently slept the day away, I missed the civil service. Fortunately for me, Rebecca's parents do not count the civil service as the real thing and there was a church wedding the next day. The church wedding is what I wanted to attend anyway because it was what German's call an American style wedding. (I want to put quotation marks here, but I still cannot figure out this keyboard).

It seems the few Germans that do decide to have a church wedding will usually have maybe a best man and maid or matron of honor, but no wedding party of 10 or 20 bridesmaids and groomsmen. And because a church wedding is so uncommon, they like to go all out with formal, let us all dress up in our suits and prom dresses, dance on a dance floor and eat a fancy shmancy four or five course meal. (Let me stress at this point that I do not know if this is typical - I am just repeating what Josh said and what I saw.) Of course I was severely underdressed. I would say I am used to the typical informal weddings in which the fanciest thing you will probably see is the dress the bride is wearing and the cake you get to eat. I did not realize that American weddings were so fancy. What weddings have I been going to and what have I been missing out on (this keyboard has no question mark) I think even the waiters were in fancier attire than I.

Still, out of all the many highlights of that particular evening, I would have to say that the biggest highlight of all was when Josh and Rebecca were about to leave and Josh's new brothers in law and their drummer whose name I cannot remember did a spot on version of Flight of the Conchord's Business Time. I could tell people were touched by this gesture because of the tears I saw in their eyes.

Anyway, I gotsta go ya´ll. There´s an 11 pm curfew on the computers at this place and Ben´s got to check out some bus schedules for tomorrow.

Ciao. (i´m so cultured)